Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Numerical proof of how tough the foreign exchange market was for many participants through the summer of 2006 has been provided by semi-annual volume data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Foreign Exchange Committee and the Bank of England’s FX Joint Standing Committee. According to the FXC, average daily volume in over-the-counter FX instruments in October 2006 totalled $534 billion, 7.5% down on April 2006.

Liability management can be a double-edged sword. Get it right and everyone showers you with plaudits about your relative sophistication as a borrower and how attentive you are to addressing investors’ wants and needs. Get it wrong, however, and your name is quickly mud and the world and his fund manager wife are soon griping about how naive you are and how difficult it will be for you to achieve your funding target for the year if you carry on in a such a cavalier, market-unfriendly manner.

Proponents of the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext believe it will enhance Paris’s position as a financial centre as the $14 billion deal promises to maintain independence. One cheerleader has been Daniel Bouton, chairman and CEO of Société Générale. At the Euromoney Paris Forum, held at the close of 2006, he was interviewed by Mark Johnson, Euromoney’s editor of conferences.

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Ecuador’s long-term foreign currency ratings to CCC from CCC+. S&P also changed the credit rating outlook to stable from positive. The moves follow repeated statements by Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, that the government would fail to make an interest payment on its debt due this month. Last month economy minister Ricardo Patino told investors that the government was considering repaying only 40% of its foreign debt. He added that he expected a debt-restructuring plan to emerge soon. Correa’s government, which came into power in January, believes much of Ecuador’s $11 billion-worth of foreign debt is illegitimate because it was borrowed by military dictatorships that ran the country in the past.

Russell Investment Group has launched a range of global indices that apply the same criteria to all companies regardless of size and the country in which they are listed.

The growing number of investors wanting to short the commercial property market is good news for property derivatives.

Regulatory arbitrage will to take a new form once bankers can get their heads around Basle II.

Babson-managed CDPC takes industry to the mainstream of structured credit.

Hedge fund Cabezon Capital focuses on the currency and liquidity strategies of emerging market governments pursuing export-led growth. Helen Avery speaks to Michael Dooley, the fund’s co-founder and head of research.

Saxo Bank is launching a year-long competition called World TopInvestor on February 19 for its white-label partners’ clients. The move follows a similar game held by its Portuguese white label partner, DIF Broker, last year. The competition is open to qualified, experienced investors familiar with the risk involved in trading in various different assets and the winner will be given a mandate to manage what Saxo says is a significant portfolio on its SaxoTrader platform.

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

Currenex’s sale may force a re-rating of FX platforms and their owners.

This tongue-in-cheek reaction of one banker on hearing that Société Générale is the latest bank to create a fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) division is understandable.

Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

The imposition of policies to counter terrorist financing activities means that controversial decisions are inevitable. Even so, the US Treasury’s hard-line stance towards Iran’s financial institutions, two of which it publicly claims are funding the country’s nuclear weapons programme and Middle East terrorist organizations, raises important questions – not least whether its actions are interfering with international commerce.

Two milestones reached in January are testament to the pace of economic change in China.

There are sound reasons why volatility has fallen across asset classes. But a safe bet for 2007 is that it will rise again.

Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM both recently reported their quarterly results. Cover ratios at both are rising nicely but ABP’s new strategic portfolio catches the eye. Mark Ramsden asks if it points to less demand for long-dated bonds and more for inflation-linked assets.

“I guess if Goldman Sachs can’t even read our P/E off a screen then the chances of them being good at the rest of the numbers is pretty low!”

“Whereas western European banks are afraid to go to the Balkans because they’re not used to the environment of corruption, black money and illegal activities, we are used to this here in Greece”

Much of the singsong about the advantages to Euronext of the merger with the NYSE sounds flat.

China’s hot...

Deutsche Bank has appointed Chris Whitman as group treasurer and Knut Pohlen as deputy group treasurer. After five years as head of DCM Americas, Whitman’s role has been taken by Marwan Marshi.

"Go to hell"

OMX bids for Slovenian stock exchange.

Richard Downer, who left Bear Stearns last June having been responsible for its troubled Rooftop Mortgages subsidiary, has joined Bank of America in London. The hire of Downer, together with former Bear colleague Neil Warman, would suggest that BoA might be the latest bank planning a move into the non-conforming mortgage space. Bear Stearns opted to bring in US talent to run the London-based residential mortgage business, which is now headed by Fred Khedouri. In another London-based move, Colin Evans has transferred to the specialty finance group at JPMorgan with a remit to boost consumer finance and non-bank financial business. He was previously head of FIG securitized products at the bank.

The unbundling of research is gathering pace again, this time driven by ­customer demand. Clients with more discerning appetites would prefer to order individual bits and pieces from a menu where the prices are clearly ­written. However, both investment banks and smaller clients are addicted to the buffet approach. Peter Koh reports.

Babson Capital has launched a credit opportunity fund designed to exploit sales of stressed and distressed leveraged loans that have been forced by CLO triggers.

Nothing is more likely to cause instability than a long period of stability. And excessive growth of credit and liquidity is a clear warning sign of crashes to come, probably within the next year.